The present invention relates to packs that may be affixed to the backs of garments for comfortably carrying articles of diverse size and shape without the necessity of a separately carried back pack.
The comfortable carriage of articles on the human back and stowage and transport of the means for such carriage have long been recognized as problems for persons in remote locations, such as hunters and campers.
Various proposals have been advanced for dealing with these problems. In some of these proposals, a backpack is affixed to the back of a garment. Such approaches, however, do not take full advantage of the size of the back of the garment. Several small compartments are provided that may be suitable for small items, but unsuited for the comfortable carriage of bulky articles. If larger compartments are provided, the compartments may be cumbersome and interfere with use of the garment when the affixed pack is not being used. Further, the number of flaps, covers, and closure devices for the compartments should be minimized because it is important to the wearer that the garment and pack remain lightweight. See, for example, the semicircular pack with three relatively small horizontal separately covered compartments affixed to the back of a vest in U.S. Pat. No. 4,669,127 issued to Swanson on June 2, 1987.
In another approach to solving these problems, multiple compartments are arranged about the waist of a user. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 2,948,898 to Allen dated July 18, 1957 in which separate compartments are affixed to the lower part of a hunting coat. Here again, the multiple compartments are neither large nor closed by a single cover.
Other approaches propose devices in which the means for carrying the pack is collapsed into the pack when the pack is not being carried. Such devices may not be useful in remote locations because the pack's contents must be removed and carried separately. See U.S. Pat. No. 4,483,469 dated Nov. 20, 1984 to Arisland, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,502,155 dated Mar. 5, 1985 to Itoi, for examples.
It is accordingly an object of the pack of the present invention to provide a novel pack that obviates many of the disadvantages and problems of the prior art.
It is another object of the pack of the present invention to provide a pack which is has multiple compartments covering a substantial portion of the back of the garment to which the pack is attached.
It is still another object of the pack of the present invention to provide a multicompartmented pack in which a first inner compartment is collapsible and is held collapsed with fittings attached to a second outer compartment.
It is a further object of the pack of the present invention to provide a collapsible multicompartmented pack which has a single piece of fabric for covering all the of openings of the compartments when the pack is collapsed and for covering the largest compartment when the pack is not collapsed.
It is still a further object of the pack of the present invention to provide a multicompartmented utility vest with a collapsible pack affixed to the back of the vest, the pack having a single cover that may selectively cover all or only one of the compartments.
These and many other objects and advantages will be readily apparent to one skilled in the art to which the invention pertains from a perusal of the claims, appended drawings, and the following detailed description of preferred embodiments.